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8/14/2008

The REAL dangers of hard candy

The UK has really gone over the edge here. First guns, then knives, now Gobstoppers (known as jawbreakers in Canada and the United States, a type of hard candy) get you substantial criminal fines.

A man caught carrying a large gobstopper in a sock has been fined £400 after it was found to be an offensive weapon.Jamie Harvey, 20, said he needed it for protection after he was attacked.At Edinburgh Sheriff Court he admitted carrying the snooker ball-sized gobstopper and sock at a city leisure centre on 19 December last year.Defence agent Matthew Nicholson said the sweet was "a substantial piece of confectionary" which could be eaten.The court heard how unemployed Harvey, from the Maybury area of Edinburgh, kept the gobstopper under his car seat.He was caught at Drumbrae Leisure Centre by police who were searching for cannabis. . . .